Chapter 4

Percy´s POV

I smiled as I watched Annabeth walk next to me through the garden. It´s been a week since the assassination attempt and every single member of the royal guard had been questioned. All of them had had a bulletproof alibi so we assumed that we didn´t have a traitor in our rows and that the assassin somehow managed to trick our security system.

Everything has gone back to normal again and I was quite relieved about that because I had to spend the last few days with interrogation my men which wasn´t very pleasant on both sides. What was even worse was that due to the increase of their security measures he couldn´t spend a single hour with Annabeth alone because now there had been always at least one other guard around her.

And I was really glad that I could decrease those measurements again after a week.

This now was the first time I could talk to Annabeth again as my best friend and not as the dutiful guard.

The last week gave me a lot of time to think about our friendship though. The moment when I held her in my arms after the assassination attempt seemed to always be in my mind. How her body felt against mine. Her sweet scent. How it felt right for her to be by my side. And of course the part where I kissed her head…

"What are you thinking about?" Annabeth asked me and stopped my daydream and I tried to wipe that dreamy look of my face.

Get a hold of yourself she is a god damn princess and you´re just a guard!

"I- uh… you actually." I confessed.

Way to go man! Why don´t you just fall on your knees and ask for her hand? Idiot!

Annabeth blushed and I carefully avoided to look her into the eyes. Those beautiful grey…

Snap out of it man!

There was some awkward silence until she decided to change the topic "By the way my father asked me yesterday to accompany him to the meeting with the Trade Union."

"Really? That's great!" I said excited for her "When and where will it be?"

She waved her fingers through her blonde curls looking a bit nervous "Yea that´s the thing… it will be tomorrow at Delphi."

I raised my eyebrow, that was pretty damn soon and as her personal guard I probably have to go with her. Which means that I have to pack my stuff this night.

"Do you expect some problems with the negotiation?" I asked her.

She shook her head "No, not really. I don´t think that the meeting is going to take very long. It´s probably just about some new trading taxes or a goods bottleneck. They are also going to celebrate the 225th year of existence of the union."

I was just about to say something but then I heard footsteps behind us and I turned around to see the king with his guards walking to them.

"Ah Annabeth and Commander Jackson, just who I was looking for! Follow me please." he said and made his way towards his office.

"So I believe my daughter already told you about the upcoming negotiation with the trading union?" the king asked as soon as they were alone in his office.

"Yes your majesty."

"Good!" he said and sat down in his chair "As Annabeth´s guard you will accompany us of course. But as you know guards from other planets are not allowed in the discussion hall, which isn´t a real problem because the entrance is heavily guarded. The thing is that guards are also not allowed during the ball were we are pretty easy targets. Therefore you will be Annabeth´s companion and not her guard. This way you will be allowed to enter and are able to watch over her."

I had to hold myself back from dancing happily around and looked at Annabeth who had a slight smile on her face. Then I returned my attention back to the king and answered with a professional monotone voice "As you wish, your majesty!"

King Frederick looked at us with a slightly amused expression and I had the bad feeling that the king knew exactly what I was thinking the whole time.

"Very well Commander! You may wait outside now. I have something to talk about with my daughter."

Annabeth´s POV

I winced as Percy closed the door behind him. I had a feeling what my father wanted to talk with me about and I desperately tried to avoid this discussion.

"What you want to talk with me about? Is it about the travel …" I stared but the king interrupted me.

"You know, the both of you remind me of your mother and me."

Damn it! I was right!

The fact that I liked Percy was not something I really wanted to talk about because I knew that in the end we just weren´t meant to be. You see as a princess I was expected to marry some aristocrat from Olympia. Which one would it be? I had no idea. Percy was deputy commander of the royal guard which put him in a pretty high position on the planet but not quite high enough to be allowed to be with me.

"Uh who?" I asked, deciding to play dumb.

My father rolled his eyes "You know very well who I´m talking about. I can see the way you look at him."

I sighed in defeat and I knew that he would tell me to let go of my silly crush and do what I was expected to "I know it´s stupid but I can´t just stop liking him!"

"Annabeth-"

But I interrupted him "Why did you even let him accompany me when you knew how I feel? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

I expected him to be angry with me for talking back but he just put a hand on my shoulder an looked me into the eyes "You know I once married a woman because of my duty. I never expected to fall in love with her, but I did. It was your mother. And because I know how it feels, I don´t want my daughter to miss out on those kind of things."

I couldn´t believe what my father just said. Did he just gave me his permission with Percy?

I know this was kind of a filler chapter but sometimes the little things are just as important as the big ones. Next chapter is going to contain a bit more Percy/Annabeth so stay tuned for more chapters. Until next time

-Inverted Logic